New year without resolutions

Although I used to be quite an advocate, I'd really like new year's resolutions to go out of fashion! I always love a project, especially if it's focussed on my favourite topic of all -- myself! And on the face of it, making intentions to improve ourselves in some way can only be a good thing. But... Continue Reading →

January 1, 2016 5

Ostrich yoga

First yoga class after the Christmas hiatus was not on the face of it very much fun. My tricky hamstring is not at all happy right now and after a fraught Christmas I was in a very emotional place too. The opening chant lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu reduced me to tears before we'd even done a single... Continue Reading →

December 30, 2015 3

Facing the cobra — together

So finally (I wrote about this nearly a month ago!) Hubby and I looked together at his Bhujangāsana at his request. A big vote of confidence from him, given that all backbends scare him a lot, even tiny baby cobra ones. It turns out he was confused by his teacher's cue to imagine that there's... Continue Reading →

December 19, 2015 3

Magic faceplants

Yesterday I had the loveliest practice at home, the type that touches a lot of my yoga buttons, why I love my practice: I can practice wherever and whenever I want to, no matter how I feel, what I look like (no dressing up needed). I can make it up as I go along, no planning... Continue Reading →

December 15, 2015 3

Discomfort in my yoga practice — and not how you might think

I've been reading recently about Conan Doyle (he of Sherlock Holmes fame) and his interest in Spiritualism (ectoplasm, fairies, and psychic phenomena). In the later part of his life Conan Doyle explored Spiritualism as a way of trying to resolve his religious upbringing and Jesuit education with his scientific training as a doctor: "Victorian science would... Continue Reading →

December 14, 2015 1

Green-eyed yogini

I envied the practice of the girl next to me in class. I wasn't watching her, but I had a sense of her gracefulness -- lightness and control, movements that looked deliberate and yet natural. I could sense this more than I actually saw it. I was trying to do my own practice, after all!... Continue Reading →

December 4, 2015 0

Hello equanimity!

As I walked to class this morning I looked up at the wintry trees swaying in the strong wind, those with leaves fluttering madly, those without swaying their bare branches. Grey clouds scudded wildly behind. It was early and there were few people about. It felt like my kingdom, my territory: I had my place in... Continue Reading →

November 29, 2015 4

Sprezzatura yoga

Sprezzatura is a beautiful-sounding word coined in the sixteenth century to define the ideals of courtly behaviour in Renaissance Italy. It originally meant "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it". I think my yoga teacher displays... Continue Reading →

November 24, 2015 3

Aquaphobic yogini

I'm a bit scared of water, I'll admit it. And I'm very scared of deep water. I guess it's a rational enough fear, though I also intellectually know that if I give myself up to the water it will hold me up. The likelihood of drowning only becomes a real problem if I tense up and... Continue Reading →

November 23, 2015 1

Trust me! Trust me?

Hubby asked me the other day if I'd help him work on his Cobra (Bhujaṅgāsana). We've yet to do this, but even the request has blown me away. He has a couple nerve issues at the moment and triggers pain really easily. For this reason I'm always wary of helping him with his practice and... Continue Reading →